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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoKyle Robertson | DispatchYoga boosts strength and flexibility in its users. A new study shows significant health benefits when cancer survivors participate in yoga for three months after treatment.

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation leave breast-cancer patients with bodies that are tired,
weakened and changed.

Yoga, which boosts strength and flexibility and cultivates a better understanding of the
connection between body and mind, helps the women fight fatigue and might lower inflammation, which
is linked to disease, according to new research.

The study of 200 breast-cancer survivors 27 to 76 years old found that those who practiced yoga
twice weekly for three months saw significant, lasting improvement. The Ohio State University
research was published in the
Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The study, led by OSU psychiatry and psychology professor Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, found that
self-reported fatigue was 41 percent lower in the yoga practitioners after three months. When the
researchers looked at blood markers measuring inflammation, they found a reduction of as much as 15
percent in the yoga group.

The differences grew with time, even though yoga was not required after the initial 12-week
period. Fatigue in the yoga group was 57 percent lower after six months, and inflammation was
reduced as much as 20 percent.

“The more the women practiced, the more the reduction in both fatigue and inflammation,” said
Kiecolt-Glaser. That’s what scientists call a “dose response,” and it helps confirm that the yoga
is what was helping, she said.

Kiecolt-Glaser said she was especially pleased to see reduced inflammation even though the women
didn’t lose weight, because some earlier research seemed to connect the two. She was also happy to
see improved sleep in the yoga group.

“Part of the idea with yoga and related kinds of practices is it may make people less
stress-responsive overall. If you can turn down the thermostat in terms of reacting to stressors,
you may be able to lower inflammation,” she said.

The study did not find a decrease in depression for the yoga participants.

This is the largest study of this sort and puts more science behind the recommendation that
cancer patients pursue physical activity after treatment, said Dr. Kristine Slam, a surgeon and
director of cancer services at Mount Carmel East hospital. Slam was not part of the study. Some of
her patients were participants.

Slam said inflammation in the body has been shown to increase the chances that a cancer will
return or spread.

Historically, some breast-cancer patients have been advised against exercise because of concerns
about lymphedema, a common side effect of breast-cancer surgery that happens when fluid builds up
after lymph-node removal. Nowadays, though, most exercise is seen as beneficial.

“Cancer treatments are for most people extremely debilitating, painful, disempowering and
disfiguring,” said Marcia Miller, who developed the yoga practice for the study and co-owns Yoga on
High. “After treatment is finished, I think that’s an incredibly vulnerable time in a woman’s
life."

She alternated the classes so that some were more demanding and others were more relaxing.
Important elements were poses that promote healing and relaxation of the nervous system, Miller
said.

Kirsten Kerr, a Columbus study participant who learned she had cancer in 2011, when she was 34,
said she enjoyed spending time with other survivors and noticed a significant improvement in
flexibility and more energy.

Though the Northwest Side woman doesn’t often practice yoga now (she’s training for a
half-marathon), Kerr said she still uses some of the skills she learned to help her cope during
trying times.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of anxiety with having a diagnosis of cancer, and especially at a
young age,” she said.